“With two weeks to play in the regular season the only other player in the league that has a realistic shot at reaching 90 is Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf, who will need seven points in his last seven games to get there (which seems doable for him given the success he has had this season). In the modern era (since 1967-68) there has never been a single season where the NHL had a 100-point scorer without at least one other player reaching 90 points.

Subscribe to Puck Drunk Love

The only non-lockout seasons in this era that didn’t have at least two players reach 90 points were the 2003-04 and 1967-68 seasons. Martin St. Louis was the scoring champion in ’03-04 with 94 points, the only player to top 90, while Stan Mikita won in ’67-68 with 87 points.

In other words, offense is down for everybody else but Crosby is still putting up points like it’s not.”

There’s more.

“Where the Penguins’ third line used to handle tough minutes and top assignments, the top two lines, and especially Crosby’s line, have taken over those responsibilities. Instead of looking at this as a failure on the part of the coaching staff and their deployment of the lines, it should probably be looked at as not only a deliberate change in strategy, but also a necessary one.”

Not only is Crosby scoring points, but he’s also playing tougher minutes against tougher players.

Overall, that post is a good read that goes into the holes in the Penguins’ lineup, player usage by the coaching staff and more. The bottom line is that Crosby is, obviously, a huge part of the Pens’ success this season and a major reason why they will more than likely be the the number two seed in the East, despite all of the injuries that the team has faced this year.